Riding the momentum of their 54-45 win over Souderton Thursday that clinched their program’s first-ever PIAA state playoff berth, sixth-seeded Methacton went on the road to take on the third-seeded Great Valley Patriots in their District 1-AAAA quarterfinal match with high hopes.

Methacton spent the majority of the game down, and when it looked the bleakest for the Warriors, they stepped up and fought back. Their furious fourth-quarter rally wasn’t enough though, and the Warriors fell to Great Valley in a 41-38 nailbiter.

“Our kids played hard,” Methacton coach Jeff Derstine said. “The nice thing is that by winning (against Souderton), we gave ourselves a chance to keep going. We’ll come out in practice tomorrow, bounce back and get ready Tuesday.”

Advertisement

After Methacton scored the first two points of the game, Great Valley stepped into the driver’s seat, leaving the first quarter with a 10-8 lead and went into the half with a six-point advantage, up 20-14.

Both teams used balanced scoring efforts in the half, as no one on either team had scored more than seven by the midway point.

The third quarter was very similar to the first two — Great Valley took the frame by a slim margin and went into the fourth up 29-22.

The fourth quarter was about as entertaining as any you’ll see. Methacton fought all of the way back, eventually taking a 37-36 lead on Justin Ardman’s mid-range jumper, igniting the Methacton faithful made the trip.

“(Methacton) was a very resilient group,” Great Valley coach James Nolan said. “They took the lead, and then Mikal (Bridges) banged a big shot.”

The shot Nolan was referring to was the 3-pointer that Bridges drilled in immediate response to Ardman’s bucket, which proved to be the winning shot for the Patriots.

Nolan said, “Big-time players make big-time shots. He really stepped up and did it.”

Bridges committed his fourth foul in the third, but Methacton was unable to draw another.

“We thought the foul trouble settled him a bit,” Nolan said. “He became more selective, and we tried to move him around a bit to not get that last foul.”

Bridges led both teams with 15 points on 5-10 shooting and was 4-4 from the free throw line.

Part of Methacton’s fourth-quarter success can be attributed to a line-up switch. Their core remained the same, with Brendan Casper, Matt Forrest, and Zach Jenkins still getting heavy minutes, but went with the taller, more physical Dillon Alderfer and aforementioned Ardman instead of starters Joe Ruhl and Anthony O’Brien for the majority of the frame.

Casper, who led Methacton with 14 points, felt that the bigger line-up was effective.

“We liked it. Coach let me play some guard,” Casper said. “We liked that line-up and we’ll probably go to it down the stretch.”

“I thought that from a match-up standpoint, it made a lot of sense,” Derstine said about the line-up change. “Dillon (Alderfer) was doing a nice job on Bridges, and Zach (Jenkins) was doing a great job on (Brad Sherry).”

Outside of Bridges, no Patriot reached double figures. Jenkins held Sherry to only three.

Even though they’ll keep playing, Tuesday’s win didn’t mitigate to loss to Great Valley for Casper.

“We wanted to get to the Final Four,” he said. “The last game does not offset this one. We’re not done yet. We’re going to learn from this and keep playing. We’ve got a lot of basketball left.”

Methacton’s next match-up is on Tuesday at 7 p.m. against tenth-seeded Coatesville. With tonight’s loss, they’re put in a four-team bracket that will compete for the fifth through eighth seeds out of District 1 heading into the state playoffs.